Senior Customer and User Researcher

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Do you put yourself in customers’ shoes to gain a deep understanding of the customers &amp; their behaviors to facilitate decision-making?  </p><p></p><p>Do you enjoy helping people develop their forward-looking ideas into concrete plans for pilots or experiments?  </p><p></p><p>Do you have experience in customer or user research with a proven track record in a range of qualitative and quantitative research techniques?  </p><p></p><p>If so, then we invite you to apply!</p><p></p><p>About our Team</p><p></p><p>Elsevier’s Science, Technology, and Medical, Journals (STMJ) division manages an extensive collection of 2000+ journals. The central Customer Experience &amp; Innovation (CE&amp;I) team within STMJ are experts in key strategic and operational areas, and together with our partners across the business, we identify, analyze, and respond to the needs of researchers and clinicians. We do this by combining deep data-driven strategic insights with innovative solutions. Our test-and-learn approach results in best practices allowing STMJ to develop trusted publishing venues and provide a smooth, effective, and collaborative customer experience. </p><p></p><p>Within CE&amp;I, the Customer-Centric Innovation Center of Expertise (CoE) has the objective to facilitate innovation across the organization with the mission to advance science with solutions that add value to customers. Starting with deep customer insights, the CoE drives and supports strategic innovation by identifying opportunities and priorities, defining processes and best practices, and supporting piloting and experimentation to improve author, editor, and reviewer experiences. </p><p></p><p>The role</p><p></p><p>We are looking for a Senior Customer and User Researcher to play a critical role in our Customer-Centric Innovation Center of Expertise.  The Senior Customer and User Researcher will be responsible for generating, collecting, and sharing insights about scientific researchers (authors, reviewers, and editors) to inform and support decision-making of the innovation program. This role is also important to the wider business as reliable customer insights are a critical enabler for the growth of our products and services. </p><p></p><p>Your work will range from ethnographic-style discovery, to qualitative and quantitative methods to test value, to usability testing on prototypes. You will lead or contribute to varied research projects that support our innovation program. As the first dedicated Customer and User Researcher in STMJ, you will be responsible for introducing the broader team to working with customer and user insights in a structured way, and setting up new processes and relationships across functions to make this happen.  Our ideal candidate is an expert in customer and user discovery and research, with at least 5 years’ experience, and has good domain knowledge in publishing and understanding researcher needs.</p><p></p><p>The role will be based in Amsterdam or the UK, and be part of the CoE team reporting to the Director of Innovation Execution, working closely with the other members of the CoE and stakeholders across the business. Additionally, the role will have a dotted line to the Director of UX Research to ensure close collaboration and alignment with the broader UX group within Elsevier.</p><p></p><p>Key responsibilities</p><ul><li>Leading and managing customer or user research to support development of tests/pilots, and to inform our broader business decisions;</li><li>Collecting, monitoring, and sharing customer or user insights from stakeholders across the business (e.g. from Editors and Publishers) – developing systematic ways to do this;</li><li>Managing a panel of researchers who have volunteered to engage with Elsevier on innovation in the research and publishing space;</li><li>Owning a monthly ‘customer connect’ series with interviews, discussions, etc, with various customers at CE&amp;I meetings or other venues, and coordinating and planning annual customer visits;</li><li>Acting as liaison between STMJ and other Customer or User Research teams across Elsevier, to support knowledge sharing.</li></ul><p></p><p>Experience and skills</p><ul><li>Have demonstrated experience in customer or user research, preferably having good knowledge of the publishing process and understanding of researcher (author, editor, reviewer) needs;</li><li>Knowledge and experience in a range of qualitative research techniques and advanced analysis skills;</li><li>Working with senior stakeholders to decide and plan a research roadmap and communicate findings and recommendations;</li><li>Applying a range of methods such as contextual interviews and usability testing to suit the research question, project stage and timescales;</li><li>Working collaboratively with colleagues in a wide range of roles and involving journals or product teams and other stakeholders in the research process;</li><li>Advocating for and support othe